NORFOLK — The Virginia Port Authority's Board of Commissioners on Tuesday awarded the port's top executive, Jerry A. Bridges, with a six-year contract extension that comes with a 16 percent pay increase.

Bridges' new contract, which is expected to go into effect on Feb. 5 and extend through 2017, will boost his base salary to $350,000 with an incentive package worth up to $175,000.

Under his current contract, Bridges' base salary is $301,600 with total incentives worth up to $90,480.

The board voted unanimously to approve the extension, which includes an additional one-year option that must be exercised by both parties to take effect.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Bob McDonnell said Tuesday night that the governor's chief of staff, Martin Kent, has approved the final contract.

"We got the right guy," said John G. Milliken, the board's chairman. "We're absolutely delighted to have Jerry for six more years. In his four years at the Virginia Port Authority, (Bridges) has led this authority to a new level of excellence."

Milliken said the contract re-negotiation contained a "fair amount of back and forth," and said the decision to increase Bridges' salary was based on a 2010 port-commissioned study of executive pay.

"The market obviously has moved up since 2007," he said. "I'm comfortable that we're in the right place in the market."

Details of Bridges' incentive package have yet to be finalized, though Milliken said the additional bonus pay will be based solely on the financial performance of the port authority.

Bridges said the long-term deal will allow him to preside over a portfolio of development initiatives he implemented during his first four years as executive director.

"We've got a lot of things brewing here, and we need time to make sure they happen," Bridges said.

The Port of Virginia, he said, offers "the greatest opportunity for me if I'm going to be in the port business."

Bridges took office in February 2007. During his tenure, the port authority acquired a 20-year lease at APM Terminals Inc.'s state-of-the-art cargo terminal in Portsmouth, inked several long-term deals with shipping lines, and ushered the port through an extended slump in international trade spurred by the global recession.

Bridges also is leading a push to lease the ailing Port of Richmond and use that property mostly to bolster a weekly barge service between Richmond and Hampton Roads.

While negotiations between the two ports have sputtered, Bridges said he's confident that an agreement will be finalized in mid-February or early March and that the port authority will begin operating the Richmond port in April.

The port authority on Tuesday also said it would spend $7 million to build a new, 200,000-square-foot warehouse at the Newport News Marine Terminal.

Rodney Oliver, the port's top finance official, said construction could begin as soon as this summer.